What, no driver aids? Is F1 all wet?

The weather could not have been better. Perhaps not the ideal for
offseason tourists, but rain in Southern Spain that presented itself
to Formula One teams testing at the Circuito de Jerez in Jerez de la
Frontera this week got the circus down to...

The weather could not have been better. Perhaps not the ideal for
offseason tourists, but rain in Southern Spain that presented itself
to Formula One teams testing at the Circuito de Jerez in Jerez de la
Frontera this week got the circus down to brass tacks.

Fernando Alonso, Renault F1 Team.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Spins, offs, beachings and red flags were the inevitable result of
drivers in cars without driver aids -- traction control and engine
braking.

A part of F1 in various forms since the 1980s, before a mid-'90s ban and then
a return in 2001, electronic gizmos that control excessive wheel spin in
certain conditions are out in 2008 thanks to rules changes by the sport's
governing body, the FIA.

Ditching traction control was seen as a way to placate fans wanting
increased driver derring-do. Losing a so-called crutch, drivers are
expected to produce errors then more on-track passing. As they must be,
the changes were agreed on by every F1 team.

But not five days into the new year with the new regulations, voices at
the front were heard to question the wisdom of stripping away the aids.
British drivers David Coulthard and Jenson Button cautioned that this
way danger lay: The Wet.

Traction control, which employs a wonderful system of detecting
wheelspin and cutting engine power, oddly enough calls for more welly,
or harder tromping on the throttle, to get a car's computer system
to provide correct power application; that is, constant acceleration
through corners. Without traction control, a film of water between tires
and road calls for a lighter right foot. Drivers' training started in
Jerez.

Britain's new leading driving light, Lewis Hamilton, a series sophomore,
bemoaned the rules changes after soggy spins Wednesday that twice
beached his McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 and left him awaiting flat-bed
service back to the paddock.

"The first time it was just wet," Hamilton said. "I touched the curb and
just went on to the edge of the gravel it would be good if there were --
some proper run-off areas here -- and then it was the same again in the
afternoon. "Without these controls helping you on the entry to corners,
there is a lot more locking of the rear wheels. And when you are on the
limit and pushing that is what happens."

Coulthard was the first driver to run on the wet track afer Red Bull's
launch held at the Jerez circuit. He ran the first installation lap of the
new car on Wednesday.

"The big issue is when we have standing water on the track without
traction control," Coulthard said. "There hasn't been a big incident --
touch wood -- for a long time, but it's just a question of when that
happens."

What Coulthard considers a long time wasn't disclosed, but few fans
will have forgotten Brazil 2003. The race was stopped 15 laps short
of completion when extrawet conditions prompted spectacular crashes
and brought on such chaos that race organizers could not immediately
determine the winner (Giancarlo Fisichella in a Jordan, his trophy
awarded at the San Marino Grand Prix).

Coulthard's Australian Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, whose attempt to
use a puddle for tire cooling resulted in a 150-mph crash into barriers
that strew tires and car parts across the track and helped end that race
in Brazil, agreed. "No question about it, there will be more crashes," he said.

Fernando Alonso, who smashed into one of Webber's tires that day in
Brazil and likewise shattered his car into bits flung across the track,
said after driving a Renault R27 at Jerez that he thinks series drivers
can adjust quickly enough to wet-weather driving without aids.

"This is the first time that I have driven without traction control,
but towards the end of my runs I started to gradually take a few more
risks with the car," Alonso said. "I am convinced that after two
or three races, we will have completely forgotten how it was to drive
with driver aids.

"It's about the driver finding his limits and adapting his driving
style," he added.

World champion Kimi Raikkonen, who tested the new Ferrari F2008, allowed
that adjusting to wet conditions will be "difficult".

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who drove the F1.08 at a private test in
Valencia, where rain was present but less a bother than gusting winds,
felt that the rules change is better for drivers.

"Formula One does not need traction control," the German said. "I enjoy
it more as a driver, especially in the rain. For me, it doesn't cross
the line of being too dangerous."

President of the FIA, Max Mosley, told Alan Henry of The Guardian that
extreme weather conditions would serve to slow the cars and that would
provide a safety factor. He described running the British Grand Prix on
a snow floor at Silverstone.

"Nobody would get hurt because nobody would ever get up to enough speed
to do any damage."

Mosley didn't address that F1 cars do not operate at other than high
speeds.

The consistent thing about F1 drivers is they step into the cars and go
fast no matter what rules apply.

The 2005 rule that dictated one set of tires throughout a race didn't
last long, especially after Raikkonen's spectacular final-lap crash when
his flat-spotted tire vibrated his McLaren's suspension into breaking
just short of victory at the European Grand Prix.